Horizon Europe’s Strategic Planning is a tool which will guide the work programmes and topics for the programme in the coming years. Like its predecessor, the Strategic Plan 2025-2027 will be co-designed with citizens and stakeholders.
Commissioner Gabriel said:
“Today marks an important milestone in the Horizon Europe strategic planning process. It will ensure that research and innovation funded by the EU generates maximum impact on the key challenges faced by all Europeans.”
Next steps
The Strategic Plan will be covered in the largest ever public consultation of research and innovation stakeholders undertaken within Horizon Europe. Due to be published in November on the Have Your Say portal, the consultation will also feature questions on the past and current research and innovation programmes (Horizon 2020 ex post evaluation and Horizon Europe interim evaluation). The consultation will remain open for 12 weeks, and a dedicated workshop for citizens is planned to take place in December.
Background
Horizon Europe is the key EU funding programme for research and innovation with a budget of €95.5 billion. It tackles climate change, helps to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and boosts the EU’s competitiveness and growth.
The Strategic Plan is a novelty in Horizon Europe and sets the strategic orientations of the programme and outlines the contributions of its various parts. By establishing a strategic research and innovation agenda, it takes an important step towards the work programmes. It ensures that EU research and innovation actions contribute to EU priorities, including a climate-neutral and green Europe, a Europe fit for the digital age, and an economy that works for people.
Citizen and stakeholder involvement was a key feature in the preparations for the Strategic Plan 2021-2024. It is estimated that in total, more than 6000 respondents contributed to these preparations; ensuring that citizens’ and stakeholders’ views were integrated in the research and innovation efforts from the start.
